Assuming no add ons have been activated, we paid £42m for him on a 6 year deal.
It's all well and good City saying they're willing to take £30m for him but who is going to pay that? They also need to factor in that he's got 4 years left on massive wages. That's going to impact the selling price.
It hasn't worked out at City and nothing about his time at West Ham suggests he is likely to return to his best any time soon. We're not talking about a young player here either.
The only team I can imagine being willing to take some kind of punt on him at a half decent fee for us is Leeds if they get promoted. But even then it's a risk as he won't be playing under Bielsa there any more.
Think Leeds would be daft to offer £30m for him (which would represent a £2m account profit for us). Our own manager has quite publicly admitted that signing him was a mistake and he has no future here. I'd be offering £20m max and City will face the choice of taking an £8m accounting loss or lose nearly £15m in amortisation and wages by keeping him another year and not using him. Our negotiating position is about as weak as it gets.